Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
- ISBN13: 9780393067248
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Product Description
The secrets of the City of Light, revealed in the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten—by the author of the acclaimed The Discovery of France. This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction, of the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten.
A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the Palais-Royal, observes disapprovingly the courtesans plying their trade. A particular woman catches his eye; nature takes its course. Later that night Napoleon Bonaparte writes a meticulous account of his first sexual encounter. A well-dressed woman, fleeing the Louvre, takes a wrong turn and loses her way in the nameless streets of the Left Bank. For want of a map—there were no reliable ones at the time—Marie-Antoinette will go to the guillotine.
Baudelaire, the photographer Marville, Baron Haussmann, the real-life Mimi of La Bohème, Proust, Adolf Hitler touring the occupied capital in the company of his generals, Charles de Gaulle (who is suspected of having faked an assassination attempt in Notre Dame)—these and many more are Robb’s cast of characters, and the settings range from the quarries and catacombs beneath the streets to the grand monuments to the appalling suburbs ringing the city today. The result is a resonant, intimate history with the power of a great novel. 16 pages of illustrations
For more information: Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
Tags: Parisians, History, Paris, true narratives, napoleon bonaparte, baron haussmann, AdventureRelated posts:
When a reader decides to enlighten himself by reading a book about a city such as Paris he would expect to learn things he did not know before.To do so, any writer should be explicit,clear and articulate so that his readers,who do not know much about it, get familiar with his subjects,characters, places or events that populate his opus.
Unfortunately, this is not the case here.A previous critic here-with whom I concur totally- has already mentioned the deplorable fact that Robb does not make clear who’s who until the end of his short tales,which are also unrelated and do not have anything in common..Had his book been a thriller,I could have only sympathized with this approach.After all,this is one of the best and oldest literary devices to assure the reader’s attention and suspense .In this case,the writer of this abysmally terrible- written book has caused me to drop it after some tens of pages.Paris will still be a gem without this failure of a book.
Rating: 1 / 5
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
An extremely well written and informative volume, this book delves into many interesting but little known facts about Paris and how the city got that way! A tremendous book for any Francophile.It is an “easy read”. Enjoy!
Dr. Alan Clarke-Hudson
Rating: 5 / 5
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
Mr. Robb is an excellent writer, and several of the chapters of this book are thrilling to read. The chapters on Zola’s wife, Proust, Napoleon, 19th Century Parisian crime are easy and joyful to read. But that is less than half the book. I understand what Mr. Robb wanted to do - to employ vastly different styles in one book. A great idea and wonderfully ambitious. My experience with several of these chapters was frustration and, to my dismay, confusion. It is rare that I don’t finish a book, but I let this one go with just two chapters to go. He lost me.
Rating: 3 / 5
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
It would help to read French when trying to read this book written in English by an English author for an English speaking (reading) audience. I was often lost by the author’s constant use of French for no reason I could discern. The use of stand alone stories as chapters works well most of the time.
Rating: 3 / 5
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
I wanted so much to like this book. The format and concept of the book are brilliant: short vignettes describing the characters (some well known, others not) that have made Paris what it is today.
However, the execution is terribly lacking. Mr. Robb is, no doubt, a gifted writer. One gets the sense, however, that he’s trying TOO hard here. While a couple of the stories are somewhat interesting, the bulk of them are barely readable. The author gets so caught up in extraneous metaphors, flowery language, and coy pronouns that it becomes difficult to determine if two consecutive paragraphs even belong in the same story. More often than not I found myself finishing a story only to wonder “what the hell was that even about?”
The book is 436 pages long. I’m finally giving up on page 400. Had this book been one continuous story instead of short vignettes, I probably would have given up a lot sooner. But each vignette is only 15-25 pages long. Every time I finished a story, I found myself desperately hoping that the next one would knock my socks off and would make this painstaking effort worthwhile. And, again, more often than not, I found myself disappointed and frustrated.
I rarely take the time to post a review on Amazon but that’s how frustrating and disappointing “Parisians” was. I am giving it two stars because the _idea_ was excellent. Unfortunately, the author and his writing did not live up to it.
Rating: 2 / 5
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris